“Down in a Coal Mine” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Down in a Coal Mine” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Joseph Bryan Geoghegan.
Tune: Joseph Bryan Geoghegan.
I am a jovial collier lad, as blithe as blithe can be,
And let the times be good or bad, they’re all the same to me;
It’s little of the world I know and care less for its ways,
For where the Dog Star never glows, I wear away my days.
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found,
Digging dusky diamonds all the year around,
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground.
My hands are horny, hard and black from working in the vein,
And, like the clothes upon my back, my speech is rough and plain;
Well, if I stumble with my tongue, I’ve one excuse to say:
It’s not the collier’s heart that’s bad; it’s his head that goes astray.
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found,
Digging dusky diamonds all the year around,
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground.
At ev’ry shift, be it soon or late, I haste my bread to earn,
And anxiously my kindred wait and watch for my return;
For death that levels all alike, whate’er their rank may be,
Amid the fire and damp may strike and flings his darts at me.
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found,
Digging dusky diamonds all the year around,
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground.
How little do the great ones care, who sit at home secure,
What hidden dangers colliers dare, what hardships they endure;
The very fires their mansions boast, to cheer themselves and wives,
Mayhap were kindled at the cost of jovial colliers’ lives.
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found,
Digging dusky diamonds all the year around,
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground.
Then cheer up, lads, and make ye much of ev’ry joy you can;
But let your mirth be always such as best becomes a man;
However fortune turns about we’ll still be jovial souls;
What would this country be without the lads that look for coals?
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground,
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found,
Digging dusky diamonds all the year around,
Down in a coal mine, underneath the ground.